


Green

by BlueWingedAngel



Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: F/M, Humour, and she's good at it, five is a little shit, five vs ryo (winner take all)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 05:58:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9165184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWingedAngel/pseuds/BlueWingedAngel
Summary: The colour green is haunting Ryo... Mostly because she's made it her business to screw up his life.IMPORTANT NOTE: Endgame Ryo/Five and lots of humour. I can't promise I'll finish it, but I felt the need to publish the first chapter since it feels very much like it can stand alone and there's not enough Five/Four out there.(a.k.a. "I tried not to write Beauty and the Beast with Five and Ryo but I think I failed"a.k.a. "Ryo doesn't know how to deal with this tiny child fucking up his perfectly planned shit"a.k.a. "How quickly can Ryo get his life torn apart by a tiny child he just can't make himself kill?")





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going on the feeling that Four and Ryo are different but the same - they'd treat different situations in alternate manners due to their memories, and they have slightly different feelings towards life, but their gut feelings are the same. Ryo remembers everything Four did, said and felt, but some things come through more clearly than others, but he doesn't have every fragment of his memory back yet (it comes back in waves, depending on what parts of it he concentrates on most).
> 
> In the end, they're the same person, Ryo just has more things to remember that make him a bit of a shithead.

Green. 

The colour green haunted him like a ghost. 

He’d stand in front of the frightened people crowded into his throne room and he’d see green – maybe it’d be a flash of reflection, or a coat or a glove, maybe it would even be hair – and any of his commands, his thoughts, they’d be questioned, not by his advisors – they were all too afraid of him now – but by him. 

Green was going to be his downfall. 

It didn’t help that her fingers had been everywhere according to his tech advisors. Oh, yes, she’d already tracked the blink drive down, she’d even disabled it, and that was a problem since she wasn’t even in the palace. 

Yet. 

“Bring me the girl,” he said, waving a hand and letting out a sigh. He felt exhausted. He’d collected the blink drive and then he’d gone home, beginning his proper reign as Emperor.

And she’d gotten in the way at every turn. 

At one point, one of the billboards in the city had read _Poopiehead Thief_. It had taken his tech crew an embarrassingly long time to get rid of that. 

Then his rap sheet had been emblazoned _across the sky_. He assumed she’d worked with someone on the planet to have that work, but they’d found that impossible to track down. 

The next thing he’d known, people had started _disappearing_. His staff had just started _vanishing_. It turned out they were getting free vacations and surprise trips to beach planets. 

“Ryo,” Misaki had hissed. “Do you know who is doing this?” 

He sighed. “Yes.” 

“Did you date her?” she said. He looked over at her and she met his eyes. “She seems personally offended.” 

No, he had not dated Five, he’d just made her trust him instead. He’d taught her to fight, to defend herself against physical attack, but in doing so he’d opened her up to emotional chaos when he reclaimed his memories, killed his family and left. 

He didn’t feel guilty about it – at least, if he did, he didn’t recognise the feeling – he just found himself lying awake at night thinking about it and wondering if she was okay. 

He knew the crew of the Raza were unhurt, he’d been very careful to have spies placed in areas he could keep an eye on them: they weren’t injured or dead, and aside from some problems with Six and Three they even seemed to be flourishing without him, but that didn’t speak for their _emotional_ state and he knew that Five was young, a kid who opened herself up and trusted the whole crew, and he’d stabbed her right in the heart. 

That explained why the things she’d been doing to his planet had been so vindictive. She’d removed advisors and trusted council members, she’d exposed his past and she’d even made him a laughing stock a few times with some well-placed images of him from casual times on the Raza. 

He was angry, that was true – she was coming between him and his people – but a few times he’d found himself amused. Poopiehead had been one of those times, ripping a laugh from his chest without warning when he’d been shown the image.

He’d found little chance for mirth after returning home, and the halls were quiet and empty without his brother and father, without the crew of the Raza. 

Misaki was company, when he chose to reach for her, but sparring was boring – she always held back now, unlike Nyx who had always given it her all and Five who had even surprised him once and bruised his nose (and then apologised for a very long time while he laughed) – and conversation was filled with lectures and demands to know why he was an idiot. 

He had no idea how they retrieved Five, but he knew that he’d sent a contingent of fifty men and only seven had returned, and most of them had bruises. 

He could tell by the placement that he’d trained her well. 

“Where is she?” he said. 

The man at the front of the group, sporting a broken nose and claw marks down both sides of his neck, tilted his head down from where he’d been trying to stem the flow of blood and glared. “We put her in the tower with the other criminals.” 

There was no way that Ryo would bolt in the presence of his men, but it was a brisk walk that took him to the tower and a wave of his hand that told them to leave him alone. 

He was pretty sure he heard someone mutter something about needing a new emperor and he held back a chuckle. 

The tower was the last place Ryo had any intention of leaving Five, so he collected a guard on the way and had him wait outside as he opened the door and stepped inside. 

The list of people he wanted dead doubled the second he saw she was chained to the wall. 

“Five.” He moved across, sparing no moment for hesitation as he crouched down and unlocked the shackles. She looked at him in disgust and hatred and he didn’t meet her eyes. “I had no idea they would—” 

“So you’re a liar too now?” she said, chasing his gaze like it would give her some kind of personal pleasure and satisfaction to make him squirm. “A coward, a traitor _and_ a liar.” 

He dropped the shackles and straightened back up to his feet, then held his hand out with his wrist braced. She took it, but only long enough to pull herself upright— 

—and then punch him square in the face. 

To his credit he didn’t make a sound as he jerked backwards and clapped a hand to his face, and he didn’t let her land another punch, blocking the next attack unlike the first and then grasping her wrists in his strong hands. 

He supposed this was how she felt: blindsided and attacked while her defences were down, but it didn’t make his cheek sting any less. 

“You will be made comfortable,” he said, meeting her eyes. 

She dropped back to her heels with her wrists still trapped in his iron grip. She didn’t tug to get them away, she just glared at him like she could set fire to his palms with her mind. 

It briefly crossed his mind that she might be able to, but that thought was quickly shoved aside when she said, “For my execution?” 

The only person in the galaxy who was capable of blindsiding him had done it far, far too many times recently and this was just one more. “Wha—No.” He couldn’t hold back the smallest frown that found its way to crease his brow. “Why would you think that?” 

She finally stopped looking like she was made of steel armour and averted her eyes just a little before locking them back on his and pulling her wrists from his hands as his grip started to slack. “You killed your step-mother—” she said. 

“My step-mother was a coward and a traitor to the crown, my father and to me,” he said. “She deserved nothing better than a swift death _and_ far worse.” 

She didn’t look away. “Your brother.” 

He had no excuse for that one. “He would have usurped me.” 

“He gave the crown to you willingly,” she said. “What possible reason would he have for usurping you?” 

He glared at her. “He would have in the end,” he said and took a step back. “They all would have betrayed me in the end. I did what I had to.” He gestured at the open door. “There is a guard outside, he will escort you to your room. It will be to your liking.” 

She didn’t move. He hated that. He’d given a command and she refused to follow it and he was unsure whose power play this was – his for the command, or hers for not moving. 

“Did you not learn anything about trust on the Raza?” she said and he clasped his hand around his wrist behind his back, tensed his neck and looked at her without emotion. “I thought you had.” When he still didn’t speak, anger sparked in her eyes again and as she stepped towards him and he prepared himself to block another physical attack, but this one was verbal. 

“You say he would have usurped you,” she said, “that they all would have betrayed you, but once your step-mother was dead the only traitor left was you. The only betrayer here is you.” 

He tensed his jaw and watched as she stormed past him, out of the room. “Don’t _touch_ me!” she snapped, the words echoing down the hall, and he swallowed, wondering if he should have assigned more guards to escort her. 

Probably. 

He took a moment, rubbing his fingers and thumb across his forehead and then taking a breath as he strode back out. 

Another guard, posted a few meters down the hall, looked across at him. He looked confused and just a little afraid. 

Ryo wasn’t surprised. 

*** 

Ryo had an itinerary that was a little different to the one his military advisor had given him. 

The advisor’s was simple: scare the girl, torture the girl, break the girl, make the girl fix the blink drive, execute the girl. 

Had it been written on paper, Ryo would have torn it up and fed it to him. 

His own was a little more complex: feed the girl a good meal because she hadn’t left her room in three days, make her fix the blink drive, decide what the hell to do with her because she couldn’t go back to the Raza because she’d just _break everything of his again from there_ but he didn’t feel right keeping her from her family. 

Was this a conscience? He was sure he didn’t possess one of those. 

“Really, sir,” his military advisor said on day four of Five not leaving her room despite demands. “What would a little torture hurt?” 

Ryo considered this. “It may please me to insert bamboo beneath your fingernails, yes.” 

His advisor snapped backwards a few paces and if he was one to show emotion Ryo would have smirked, but he wasn’t, so he didn’t. Instead, he looked across at him and said, “Tell the kitchen to prepare a meal, something that tastes good and is nutritionally satisfying, and include something sweet for dessert.” He waved a hand. 

His advisor blinked. “That is hardly in my jurisdiction,” he said. 

Ryo looked across at him. 

“Right away, sir,” he said and skittered out of the door like a frightened crab. 

This was how Ryo found himself holding a tray and standing in front of Five’s door. He knew all the steps that had brought him here, but somehow he was still unsure how this was where he had ended up in his life. 

“Five,” he said, deep voice reverberating down the halls. No answer. “Five, I know you are in there, so respond.” Nothing. “Five?” 

Of course, it was possible she _wasn’t_ in there. 

Had his advisor done something against orders? 

He opened the door, noting that it was unlocked (which meant anyone could get in, and either he needed to have it locked or to vet his guards) and stepped inside. 

Five was sitting on her bed, her legs pulled up under her small frame, and she looked across at him. 

It occurred to him that she’d just won round one. 

And now he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. “I brought you something to eat.” 

“Don’t you have servants for that?” she said. 

He did. “No.” He walked across, thrusting the tray out towards her. She didn’t move. “Take it.” She still didn’t move. He grit his teeth. “Please.” 

She took the tray and his internal score count went up to two-nil to her. 

He hovered. Four would sit with her, talk to her perhaps, but Ryo was an Emperor and he would not sit on her bed and talk to her like a schoolgirl. 

He found a medium, dragging a chair across and taking a seat in front of her. He kept his back straight and his eyes locked on her as she delved into the food like a starving gazelle. 

“You could have come out for dinner,” he said. 

“Well, I’d been put in chains by the last members of your court I met, so I didn’t think I’d be very welcome at the dinner table,” she said and glared at him. 

“That,” he said, “was not by my command.” 

She set her jaw. “They wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t think you’d want it.” 

She wasn’t wrong. “I would never want you to be in chains, Five.” 

“But other girls,” she said. He wondered if she knew how wrongly that could be taken. “Thieves trying to survive, girls like me, girls like I used to be.” She looked at him. “You’d have those in chains. Would they ever get to go home?” 

He wasn’t sure what happened to thieves brought to the castle. He hadn’t looked into it since he’d come to power. He didn’t speak, and she seemed to take that as an agreement that indeed, he was responsible for the torture of many teenage girls. 

“I taught you well,” he said, trying and failing to keep pride from his voice, “I saw what you did to the guards I sent to collect you.” 

“Three killed a lot of them,” she said, stabbing a piece of food. He wondered if he shouldn’t have given her cutlery. “Two a couple. They cornered me and took me from the Android.” 

“Was anyone hurt?” he said. “I left strict instructions—” 

“No.” She looked at him. “Not that I know of.” 

He nodded and watched her. “You know why you’re here.” 

“I got in the way,” she said. “Like your brother.”

He inhaled, slow and deliberate to keep tension from rising any further in his body. It was like she was determined to drag an emotional response from him regarding his brother and that just wasn’t going to happen. “You will not be killed.” 

She snorted and stabbed the food some more. He assumed she was thinking about his head, or other select parts of his anatomy. 

“You will not be killed,” he repeated. 

“What if I don’t do what you want?” she said. “What if I’m not obedient or don’t stay in my room?” 

“I have invited you out of your room,” he interjected. 

“What then?” She met his eyes. “Will you kill me then?” 

“You will not be killed.” He’d say it until he was blue in the face. 

Until she believed him. 

“Tortured?” she said. “Starved?” 

“I invited you to dinner with me,” he said, an edge of grumpiness creeping into his tone. “At least accept the facts as they are presented to you, even if you will not be accepting of the ones of which I speak.” 

“I will not be killed,” she said, “yada yada yada. You also said you didn’t mean us any harm.” She popped a piece of potato into her mouth and bit down on it. _That_... That was not his head. He suspected thumb or toe. He ignored its shape. “Let’s see how quick _that_ changed.” 

“I did not harm any of you.” He scowled at her when she let out a _ha!_ sound. “Five, I warned the Android of the impending explosion.” 

“You blew up a station filled with people,” she said, “people we were there to protect, and then you act as though you protected us with your life because you gave us _warning?_ ” She shook her head. “You showed your cowardice.  You killed innocent people to further your own agenda. I don’t care that you _warned us_ , I care that you did that. And?” She waved her fork at him. He felt thoroughly chastised, the likes of which he hadn’t felt since Misaki’s last lecture and Five’s scornful words were twice as strong as hers. “I was on the station when it exploded. We were _all_ on the station except for Nyx and the Android.” 

“You weren’t hurt,” he said, looking her over. “You have no limp, no—” 

“You’re missing the point,” she said, and this time she just seemed despairing. “What _happened_ to you, Four?” 

That caught him off-guard. Every time he threw up defences, she found another hole and forced her way through it. He felt like swiss cheese. “What?” He didn’t even try to correct her. He didn’t know if her voice calling him Ryo would be yet another hole in his iron. 

“You’ve never been a _good guy_ ,” she said, “but you were never—” She sighed. “You were never _this_.” 

“I was,” he said and looked at her. “I was a drunkard and a fool, a child trying to stand apart from my father’s shadow and my step-mother’s influence while failing to be strong enough to ever make a worthy emperor. And then I was a criminal, a mercenary, a _murderer_. And then I was Four, and I never made show that I was anything but a criminal, a mercenary, and a murderer.” 

“You spared the boy you sparred with, you went easy on him so that you wouldn’t hurt him,” she said. 

“And my father beat me for it.” He didn’t glare, he just stared into her eyes. Which, he realised, would be a mistake if she kept gazing back at him like that. “The Ryo you saw was a child, I am an adult, a grown man who has now a planet to govern and a war to win.” She opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “Which brings me to why you are here – you will fix the blink drive.” 

Her jaw went slack without her lips parting and her head tilted. “Fix the blink drive?” 

“Yes.” He looked at her. “You hacked into it and disabled it. You will fix it.” 

“I’m here for that?” she said and let out a laugh, confusing him. “Not the billboards or the security grid?” 

“No, for the—” Pause. “What did you do to the security grid?” 

“...nothing.” 

“Five,” he said, voice dropping an octave into what most people knew as the danger zone. 

She offered him the cutest face imaginable, not that he would ever think of it that way. “I may have made it pink,” she said. “And... text-based.” 

He narrowed his eyes. “What does it say?” 

She blinked at him and put another piece of potato in her mouth. “Six gets mad when I speak those words, so I can’t say.” 

So his planet was probably telling the entire solar system and all approaching vessels that Emperor Ishida Ryo was a giant cunt in big pink text. 

Excellent. 

“You will fix that too,” he said. 

“Will I?” she said and poked the gooey chocolate cake the cook had come up with for her. “What’s this?” 

“It’s—” He was not her servant. “—chocolate cake.” 

She poked it some more. “It looks like a melted protein bar.” 

He paused. He should focus on the large pink text insulting him, or the fact he needed the blink drive to work again, not on the sudden realisation she hadn’t had a normal or pleasant childhood, not even close to his. “Have you never had chocolate cake?” 

She glanced up at him. “Not that I remember.” 

She remembered more than she let on, he knew that, so he took a moment to study her. “Before... You were Das? Emily?” A flicker of surprise passed over her face. “Do you remember? Did you have chocolate cake then?” 

“No,” she said. He wanted badly for her to open up, he could see her right on the cusp of it, but he couldn’t blame her when she shut down entirely instead and put the tray down on the table at the end of her bed, the chocolate cake uneaten. 

He didn’t know if she didn’t remember, or hadn’t had cake. 

“I’m tired,” she said after a moment and looked at him. “It’s late. I should sleep.” 

She should, he thought, she seemed tired, probably from lack of nutrition and, well, imprisonment on a planet far from her home. 

He stood up and the internal tally he’d failed to keep ticked over to ten-nil, because it was a nice round number and he knew full well he’d lost repeatedly to the tiny strip of a girl currently occupying a bed that would swamp Six. 

He picked up the tray and hesitated. What was the right thing to say in this situation? 

“Sleep well,” he said. 

She looked over at him. “I’d like another pillow,” she said. He eyed the six on the bed. “They’re uncomfortable, and I’d like one for my feet.” 

Whatever this was, the tally went up to eleven. “I will have one sent to you,” he said. He was still holding the tray, like a servant would, waiting to be dismissed. “Is there anything else you’d like?” 

She wasn’t a prisoner, he told himself. She was a guest who couldn’t go home right now.

“Water, I drank mine,” she said. 

He glanced around. “Does your bathroom not have flowing water?” he said. He wondered if his advisor had given her a room with a broken bathroom as a way of pointedly treating her like a prisoner still. 

“Tap water isn’t good for you,” she said. “It contains toxins and chemicals.” 

“Water is water, and the palace has clean water,” he said. She looked at him. “I will... have a jug sent, with the pillow.” 

Something passed over her face, he’d seen it before when she’d stood in front of him and told him she’d lived through his memories. He waited, but she wasn’t forthcoming. 

He put irritation and exasperation into his voice. “What is it?” 

“I know you won’t let me have a console or a computer or anything,” she said, “but can I have things to fix?” 

He looked across at her. “To fix?” 

She nodded. “Gadgets, tools, weapons without the firing clip,” she said. “Anything to do with my hands.” 

If his advisor had his way, her hands would be in thumbscrews, but clearly Ryo was soft, and that was a problem because he couldn’t make himself stop being soft when she was staring at him with big blue eyes and biting on her lower lip. 

“I will speak with my technicians,” he said with a sigh. “I’m sure we have many things that require fixing that you can work with without being a threat.” He paused, a concept flitting through his mind. “Of course, if you are helpful and cause _no_ trouble, you could receive more jobs to do, outside of your room?” 

“I’m fine with things to fix,” she said. 

He considered breaking the tray in two, but he was far too controlled to show such violent frustration. Instead, he nodded. “You will fix what you broke,” he said. “And then you will be allowed other things to fix.” That seemed like a fair deal. 

She seemed to agree. “As you wish,” she said. 

He wondered if letting her into the systems to fix her vandalism would be a mistake, but he supposed if he had enough people monitoring her it would be all right. 

Not that any of them had been able to _fix_ her wanton destruction. 

She was a genius, and he was unsure she even knew it. 

“You will come to dinner tomorrow,” he said. When she opened her mouth he added, “That is not a request.” She snapped her mouth closed. She was a guest, but a guest that needed to be controlled, and forced into fixing the things she’d broken. “If you want more privileges, you will earn them, just like you did on the Raza.” 

He watched the muscles at the sides of her jaw, just under her ear, as they twitched, tensing and releasing the iron clench of her teeth. 

Then she nodded. “Okay.” 

“Rest well,” he said and walked out, closing her doors behind him. 

He’d finally achieved a victory. Eleven-one. 

Why didn’t it feel that way?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner is served.

After Six’s betrayal and One’s death, Five had... struggled. Ryo remembered that clearly. 

He wasn’t sure anyone else had noticed – she’d kept it hidden, tucked aside like her many secrets, like the fact she remembered so much of her life before she was Five – but he had. He hadn’t said anything, hadn’t drawn attention to it, but he’d noted the angered punches she’d thrown and the extra time she’d spent in the training room, practicing her accuracy with a variety of guns and knives. 

The only other one who had commented on her change in determination and attitude had been Two. She’d asked if maybe they should find her something else to focus on to alleviate her tension, if maybe her time with weapons should be reduced, but Four had shut that down. 

“She needs to feel strong, powerful,” he’d said. “But more than that, she needs to feel in control. Six took her family away and all she could do was watch. She doesn’t want to feel that again.” 

He couldn’t be sure, but he had a suspicion that putting the blame for Five’s behavioural changes on Six was responsible for how long it took the crew to trust him again. 

He supposed he’d never know now. 

Either way, he found himself thinking about those changes in Five as he sat at his dinner table, sighing to himself and wondering if she’d come to eat with him. 

On the Raza, she’d always been social. With exceptions for when Three chased her out with comments on Four’s sex life or by treating her like a child, Five had always been the first at the table and the last to leave. 

She didn’t always participate in the conversation, but she was always _there_ , a warm presence over food and drink, a smile offered his way when he said something she liked, a scowl when he didn’t. She’d never kept it to herself when she disapproved of his opinions or his actions, nor had she stayed quiet when she liked them. 

He was not her Emperor, nor did she find him intimidating. 

It was strange how warm that felt in his chest when he thought about it for too long. 

He’d been eating alone for the last four days, waiting for Five to come to dinner, and he wondered when he’d been reduced down to pathetically stabbing at his potatoes while a seventeen year old girl blew him off. 

He’d yet to pick up his fork today when the doors opened and Five stepped in. He’d sent one of his guards to collect some clothing for her and if he allowed himself such things he might have smiled to see she was wearing a red sweater covered with black pirate bunny rabbits and a pair of striped leggings. 

No one could ever say Ishida Ryo was not observant. 

He presumed the warmth of the palace was why she had forgone one of the coats. 

He stood when she entered and he could almost feel the eyes of the guards on him, wondering who this girl was that Emperor Ishida Ryo would stand at her entrance. 

The honest answer was he didn’t really know. 

“You came,” he said and nodded his head, gesturing at the table. “Please, sit.” 

“You said it wasn’t optional,” she said. He bit back a sound of amusement, knowing full well if she didn’t want to come she wouldn’t have, and watched her trail over and sit down opposite him. The table was long enough that even if he lay his body across it, his feet touching his end, he still wouldn’t reach her. 

It struck him that a smaller table might have been better. 

Or perhaps that would have been too intimate. 

He sat back down and gestured at the spread of food. “Help yourself,” he said and settled back into his chair. She looked across the table at him. He wondered if her arms were too short to reach the food. “I could call someone to serve you?” 

She narrowed her eyes, getting up again and collecting her plate. He watched her grab food from the table like it was a buffet and stayed quiet, only speaking when she pointed at items questioningly and he needed to tell her what it was. 

After a minute or two, she sat back down and Ryo studied her across the table. “Would you like wine?” He gestured at the bottle. 

She glanced over at him. “For real?” 

Six had always stopped them from sharing their alcohol with Five, claiming she was too young, but Ryo had been drinking since he was a boy and he saw no harm in a glass of wine, especially if it helped relax her. 

Maybe then she’d fix the blink drive. 

“For real,” he agreed and she nodded, glancing at the wine bottle with hesitance and maybe even a little fear in her eyes. 

He stood, picking up the bottle and making a show of pouring two glasses from the same place. He alternated between his and hers until the glasses were both two thirds full, then put the bottle down and carried hers across, putting the glass down beside her plate. “Eat something before you drink,” he said, suddenly struck with the image of Five getting smashed off one glass of Zairon wine, even if it wasn’t as strong as Three’s picks of booze. 

She looked for a moment like she’d ignore him and down the glass as a way of being a brat, but instead she nodded, picking up her fork and picking at her food as he sat back down his end of the table. 

He made his way through his own food, accompanied by mouthfuls of wine, and watched down the table as she took little sips of her own and ate hungrily, finding himself at a loss for words. 

He’d never been talkative, that was true, but that didn’t mean he was ever unable to think of something to say. He always had the right words for any given situation, that was important for an emperor, after all. 

But right now he didn’t know what to say. 

She glanced over her wine glass at him, then turned her attention back to beans and carrots. He knew better than to think she wasn’t keeping an eye on him at all times, and he wondered how he could ease her mind and lower her tension if even the wine wasn’t helping. 

Perhaps the wine had made her even more paranoid. 

Was it paranoia if he’d already betrayed her once? 

He finished his own glass of wine, setting it aside once it was empty, and leant back in his seat, his plate clear and his stomach full. He’d gained a few pounds after returning to Zairon, suddenly spending most of his time politicking, surrounded by good food and average mealtime conversation. There was no rationing here, there was just breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks he could handle. 

“When I returned to Zairon,” he said, “the first meal I had contained this.” He picked up a long, grey-blue bean and held it up for Five to see. “I was surprised to realise I’d been missing and craving it for months, without knowing what it was I missed.” 

As an ice breaker, he realised it was pretty lame. 

Five picked up one of the beans and he watched in surprise as she nibbled it. “You missed this?” she said, once she’d swallowed down her mouthful. 

He shrugged. “When I was very young, my mother would cook. My father would tell her an Empress’ job was not to cook or clean, that we had servants and cooks for those tasks, but she enjoyed it. She’d spend hours slaving away in the kitchen and produce the most elegant, delicious meals. These beans were her favourite side-dish, especially cooked with butter.” He eyed the bean for a moment, then put it down. “This,” he said, “is never as I remembered it.” He paused. “Or rather, did not remember it.”

Her lips twitched. “Maybe you should put some butter on it.” 

He shook his head. “It doesn’t seem to help.” He put the bean back down and rested his hands in his lap. “At least it’s better than the green bars.” 

She snorted out a laugh and he fought back a feeling of happiness and victory. He’d made her laugh, now he just had to make her like him again. 

He wasn’t sure when his task list had begun to include _Make Five Like Me Again_ , but there it was. 

“Did you receive the things I sent to you?” he asked. The things he’d sent, of course, were gadgets and gizmos he’d scrounged from throughout the palace. He wasn’t ashamed to admit he’d circled it twice, asking anyone he came across if they had something that needed fixing. 

That didn’t mean he’d tell her that though. 

He was sure that Misaki was ready to declare him unfit for office of the Emperor if he continued acting so strangely. 

Five nodded, hesitance returning, and he kicked himself for reminding her of her captivity. “I could do with a screwdriver, maybe some other tools too?” 

He watched her across the table for a moment. “Fix the security grid and I will see that you receive tools.” 

She pulled a face but nodded. “Fine, okay.” 

If he was Three, he probably would have done a fistpump of victory, but he wasn’t, so he just thought it strongly instead. “Would you like dessert before we fix the grid?” 

She flicked her eyes up to his from where she’d been studying her plate. “I’d like that,” she said and smiled. 

He pushed his chair back, intending to visit the kitchen and request dessert, then froze as the door burst open and Misaki strode in. “Ryo,” she said. “Would you like to explain why you missed the meeting _again_ this morning?” 

Ah, yes, the meeting. The meeting where, just like a few days before, they’d discuss his reticence to torture the girl currently drinking his wine and eating his food until she fixed the drive, and consider overruling him. 

He didn’t really _want_ to have to murder everyone in the room, at least one or two of them were useful to him. 

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Five had launched to her feet, knocking her glass from the table and shaking with anger. 

“Five?” he said. 

“You—You—She’s still—” Five mouthed like a fish, like she couldn’t find the words to express the rage that was clearing building within her chest. 

“Five, what’s wrong?” he said, getting to his feet. 

“Why is she here?” Misaki demanded, practically spitting the words. “She’s supposed to be fixing the blink drive and the other disturbances, not enjoying tea parties with the emperor.” 

Five looked around at him, her eyes flashing, and he wasn’t sure if she was angrier over whatever she was holding back or over the fact Misaki was talking to him like he was beneath her. 

He’d gotten used to that last part over the last few months. 

“I have told you before and I will tell you again,” Ryo said, his voice low and calm, “Five is my guest and she will be treated as such.” 

Misaki pushed past Five, who glared at her back, turning as she passed and never letting her out of her sight. “Your council thinks you are _weak_ , Ryo,” Misaki spat, “and I’m starting to think they’re right.” 

Ryo met her eyes, his jaw tensing and releasing as he fought back any visible signs of anger or distress. “Five is my friend,” he said, never raising his tone. 

“You cannot afford friends,” Misaki said. “Especially not from the crew of your _pirate ship_.”

“Four.” Five’s voice pulled his attention from Misaki and he looked around to see Five staring at him, her blue eyes wide. “Why is she still here?” 

Ryo’s brow furrowed a little. “She is the Commander of the Imperial Royal Guard.” 

“Why are you answering to her?” Misaki snapped out. 

He didn’t look at her, instead he watched Five as she lowered her head a little, frowning and visibly computing something. It was reminiscent of the Android, her eyes flicking back and forth as she thought something through. “Five?” 

She snapped her eyes up to his. “You don’t know what she did,” was the conclusion she reached. 

Misaki, who until that moment had still been speaking, fell silent. 

Ryo looked around at her. “I would recommend that you tell me what she is talking about, since you clearly know.” 

Misaki’s jaw twitched. Her teeth gritted. Her eyes hardened. “Ryo,” she said, “that ship, this girl, the crew, they are in the past, they are in _your_ past. You’re home now.” 

He looked across at Five, who looked back at him. He didn’t have to ask. 

“She attacked Nyx,” she said. 

“Be silent!” Misaki snapped her way. 

Five, being Five, disobeyed. “When you stole the blink drive, she attacked Nyx. The Android found her on the floor. She’d cut her with a poison bla—” She broke off with a yelp when Misaki shot across, grasping her by the throat and looking across at Ryo. 

“You trust this child over me now, Ryo?” she said. “Is that what you have become?” 

Five made a little choking noise and Ryo balled his hands into fists. He was used to carrying a weapon, but in the palace he hadn’t needed one, surrounded by guards. 

Of course, he’d never really needed one anyway. 

He stormed across, grabbing Misaki by the back of her collar and dragging her back. She pulled Five with her, grip tightening not releasing, and Five whimpered through her nose.

“I trust who I trust,” Ryo ground out. “And it is clear I chose correctly. Release her.” 

“She’s lying,” Misaki said, “and even if she was not, that whole crew should be wiped from the face of the universe for what they represent.” 

“’m not lying, Four,” Five squeaked through her constricted breathing. 

Misaki struck out and Ryo fell backwards, taken by surprise by the blow. Misaki rounded on Five and Ryo bolted back towards them, prepared to protect Five. 

There was a shout of pain and Misaki jerked back, Five’s hand around a knife embedded in her chest. 

Five yanked her hand back, pulling the knife out, her eyes wide, and Ryo hurried across, catching Misaki in one arm before she could fall down. “Guard!” he bellowed and the door opened, a guard striding in. “Take Misaki to the infirmary and keep her under guard. She is under arrest.” 

The exchange of Misaki to the guard was quick, and then the door closed as though she’d never been there at all. 

Blood stained Five’s sweater, but it wasn’t hers and for that he was grateful. 

“Are you hurt?” he said. 

She rubbed a hand over her bruised throat and shook her head. “No,” she said and looked up at him. “Are you?” 

He wanted to say it took more than a blow to the head to knock him down, but these days he wasn’t sure. “No,” he said instead. He swallowed. “Is Nyx—” 

Five shook her head. “She didn’t make it.” 

Ryo took a breath, looking across at the door through which Misaki had been escorted out. 

“What will you do to her?” Five asked. 

The obvious answer was execution, likely public so that everyone would know not to betray the Emperor of Zairon.  He hesitated, which was a mistake. 

“You’re going to kill her?!” Five said.  

He winced, but kept it internal. “That _is_ the way, here,” he said. He looked across at her. “She killed Nyx. Would you not see her pay for her crime?” 

He could see the battle raging on Five’s face. On the one hand, they as a crew had been trying to do better, to help people and not be quite as criminal as they had once been. 

On the other hand, Misaki had killed Nyx, Five’s friend, _Four’s_ friend. 

And that was the first time he’d thought of himself by that name in months. 

“She could be useful still,” Five said. “Maybe she should pay with her life, not her death.” 

“Have her serve?” Ryo said, frowning. 

“No,” Five said, “but she knows more of Zairon from the last decade than you do.” She shrugged. “It seems wasteful to kill her. Her knowledge dies with her.” 

He wasn’t sure if she wanted Misaki to pay or for Ryo to show that he wasn’t a complete monster.

Either way, he nodded. “She will be imprisoned,” he said, “for now.” The unspoken promise that if she misbehaved she’d lose her head was in his words and he knew from Five’s expression that she detected it. He glanced over at her. “You require a change of clothes.” 

She looked down at the wooden floor on which Misaki’s blood was splattered. “You need a new floor.” 

It seemed like a mistake to laugh at his childhood friend’s blood on his floor, but his lips twitched anyway. 

He looked around after a moment. “I will have a guard escort you back to your room,” he said. “I will collect you in an hour to fix the security grid.” He was sure the priority should be the blink drive, but so far she’d shut down any talk of her fixing that, so he’d decided to work up to it. 

She pouted down at her sweater. “I liked this one.” 

“I’m glad,” he said and she looked at him in surprise. “I picked it?” 

“Oh.” She seemed stunned practically into silence and it amused him more than it should. 

He shook his head after a moment. “I will have more clothing sent to you,” he said. “A variety.” 

“I don’t need much,” she said. “I’ve never needed much.” 

“You deserve much,” he said before he could hold it back. He cleared his throat. “Guard!” 

She pulled a face as a guard stepped in and Ryo looked across at him. “Escort my guest back to her room.” 

“Of course, Emperor Ishida.” The guard nodded, stepping aside to make room for Five to walk past him, which she did. 

Ryo looked back at the table, at the two empty wine glasses, the blood from the knife and the plates, now devoid of food, then paused. 

He jogged after the guard. “Wait,” he said and he and Five stopped, the girl turning to look at him. He strode up to her and held his hand out, palm up. 

She pulled a face and placed the bloodied knife in his hand. 

He waited. 

“Fine,” she muttered and pulled her fork and bread knife from her pockets. 

The last item to be placed in his hand was a spoon. 

He eyed her, wondering what she intended to do with it. 

She looked right back at him. 

After a moment, he just waved a hand and she and the guard continued on their way. 

It crossed his mind to install a metal detector on her door. 


End file.
